Yes, you're right. However the headline uses "hacker" in a restricted, negative sense. I always keep in mind the broader sense of the word, and there are plenty of times when I've seen people use it appropriately when referring to "Black Hats" or "crackers." A bigger problem is websites like Slashdot, whom many in the mainstream press would take as representative of nerds like us, using it in the strict sense. Most of all though it was annoying, and disappointing, to see what I thought was an interesting headline, and learn it's just another article about something I don't really care about.

You're suggesting I just change my mind? You haven't been reading what I wrote. I've made a judgment about it and I don't have to defend it to you, nor take it as a sign of my abilities. I don't like it --- and I don't have to like it --- and I know there are other places where people agree with me. I've got enough dissent in my life; it's just getting old.

I really wish Slashdot headlines would stop using "Hacker" in the sense of "computer-oriented criminal." I clicked on this thinking it would be an interesting story about new hardware developments. It's just another boring story about what might be a problem for law enforcement. Who cares?

I mean really, sure the kids will learn about all this fancy electrical engineering and maybe one day they will figure out how to provide clean drinking water, build good hospitals and all that, but what's really important is shoving these kids into cubicals in Mumbai so they can code spambots. When are people going to learn that idealism is great but what really matters is greed and making money NOW. Not to mention, what kids really want is games: can you play Grand Theft Auto on one of these cheap laptops? That's what the kids want.

whisper_jeff writes: "The U.S. government on Monday announced new rules make it officially legal for iPhone owners to "jailbreak" their device and run unauthorized third-party applications, as well as the ability to unlock any cell phone for use on multiple carriers."

I would imagine this news will hasten the (official) arrival of the iPhone on rival networks in the US.

trashbird1240 writes: A story at ScientificAmerican.com reports on a recent meta-analysis of bullies and victims. They found that bullies and victims have similar personality traits, but that bullies tend to do poorly in school, as opposed to those who get bullied. Both bullies and victims are poor social problem solvers, but they resort to different tactics to handle their social ineptitude. To me this represents a huge leap forward in understanding nerd psychology.

Ballmer delivered a keynote speech this morning in Washington DC at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC). The focus of the speech was on Microsoft's cloud operations, but Ballmer did say Windows 7 phones and slates were coming this year.

Microsoft listed all the partners for Microsoft's slates and phones. Twitter user Javiergc highlighted that HP might be working with Microsoft on a slate, after all.

Ballmer also said he expects to sell 350 million Windows units this year.

trashbird1240 writes: We first heard rumors of this policy change a couple of months ago, but now it's made the papers: the Financial Times is reporting that Google is phasing out the use of Windows internally, as employees are migrated to either Linux or Mac OS X on machine turnovers or new hires. The policy change was precipitated in large part by the security breach attributed to Chinese hackers; Google's IT leaders apparently feel that Microsoft's OS represents too great a risk across the enterprise to leave it in place.